The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-06-09
Jacobinism in American Politics.

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. colossal.
After reading that speech over in cold
type the senator will doubtless agree that
in this case the vOx popui is the vOx del,
( and recall the remark Of Tony Weller on
his second marriage, I've done IT once
too often, Sammy; I've done it once too
often"
Well, Mr.. Blaine will now go to Europe
wich a lighter heart. II is made plain
that his eloquent rivals mania is not
homicidal, as was supposed, but simply
suicidal.
Senator Sherman'5 argument proves TOO
much. His syllogism hOlsts him with his
own petard. 1t runs in this shape:-
The president who sends a pardened
officer of the Confederate army on a re-
sponsible foreign mission is himself a
| Confederate.
Mr.. Cleveland has done this with thu
sanction of the democratic party.
Therefore Mr.. Cleveland and the whole
democratic party are a section of the re-
habilitated Confederacy.
1t 50 happens, however, that General
Grant did the same thing. The newt
able conclusion, therefore, is that General
Grant was an eminent officer of the Con
| federate army, and that in bestowing
public Office on southerners he deliher-
ately gave foreigners the impression
shat it was the rebel cause that trium PHI
ed, and not the union cause"
More than this, the republican party,
including Senator Sherman himself, D.
proved General Grants policy, which
shows by the logic adopted that the dem-
ocratic party and the republican party
are both i'll the COnfederacy at the present
moment, and that though tho whole
country is united at last it is Confederate
from the lakes to the gulf. Such gen
eral upset of preconceived ideas is rather
startling, but perhaps we shall get used to
it in time.
The arraignment of General Grant as
Confederate soldier is an undertaking
which presents several points of unusual
interest and novelty. In making the bold
attempt Senator Sherman must have first
convinced himself that the republican
party to which he addressed his eloquence
was an aggregated ass. The Herald at
once hastens to the rescue. We differ
with that party on many important points
of public policy, but in the present in
stance We deny the allegation and defy the
alligator.
Senator Sherman is a man of many sided
craftsmanship. He has qualities of mind
which nature bestow5 only once in gene r
alton.
In the first place, his political pri lci-
pies may be said to be climatic-that is,
he is too broad a man to be confined to
any one set of ideas or convictions, and
changes them to suit the locality in which
he finds himself. When in Nashville.
Tenn, for example, this facile republican
Jacobin piped smooth lay to the lost
cause. When referring to "the late differ
ence of opinion" he dwelt for brief
period id "a blaze of apology" and lapsed
at last into fervid eulogy of the southern
army. "The courage, bravery and forti-
tude of both sides are now the pride and
heritage of US all" Far be it from him,
he cried, "to reproach any man for the
part he took in that fight"
1t is only high order of Intellectual
chaos which enables one to thus suit his
ideas to the mean temperature of different
sections of this vast continent. Not all
of us can hope to attain that altitude of
character where political principles are
essentially geographical in nature and de-
pend for their complexion on the rise and
fall of the mercury.
When Senator Sherman reached the
more frigid temperature of Springfield,
H., however, he assumed another set of
opinions as easily as he put on his over
coat. He combed out the wings of the
American eagle, drew the velvet from its
claws, kindled an extra firebrand in its
already blazing eye and fairly pinched
the bird to make it shrek its shrillest
shrek, His hatred of the south boiled
and dubbed like geyser. The
country was to be saved at once,
and he barred his brawny arm
with the sweet consciousness that
there is one man in this country
though modesty forbade the mention of
his name-who would be glad to be ad
dressed as "Mr. President" for the pur
pose of sweeping the democratic party of
the north and the whole population of the
south into the bottomless pit of political
fire and birthstone Such patriotism is
seldom met with, and our only fear is that
this cold and wicked worlu will fail to
appreciate its incarnation in Senator
John Sherman. The greatest men are
doomed to live and die in obscurity, and
the present instance will probably con
stitute no exception to the rule.
In the second place, he misrepresented
the facts of history as though he had
learned the trade. Such proficiency is
acquired only after long and laborious
practice To grow eloquent over some
thing that "isn't so" requires genius, but
the senator is gifted in that direction to
a remarkable degree. He fairly Numbered
about republican incorruptibility, and ig-
nored the insignificant fact that the peo-
pie elected that party becauseit was fairly
honeycombed with fraud. He melted and
almost ran away in limpid stream of
pathos while mourning the evil prac
tices of the democracy, but forgot that
he was himself component part of the
Hayes conspiracy, and was paid for his
services with a lucrative office. He made
the heavens lurid when he denounced the
failure of civil service reform, but was OBJ
livious of the fact thati in 1SS4,out of about
fifteen hundred clerks in the pension office,
less than thirty were democrats.
But these are matters of tritling import
ance. The speech, if considered as a mis-
statement of everything, was admirable.
and will occupy high place in the liter
ture of Jacobin politics. As Mr.. Sidney
Smith once remarked" II have govt, asthma
and seven other other maladies, but other